- Works to be displayed in British embassies worldwide, from Washington to Abu Dhabi.
- Acquisitions are part of the Art X-UK project that collects works by exciting UK artists for display in more than 125 countries
The nation’s next generation of artists are set to have their work displayed in embassies and government buildings worldwide, as part of a government drive featuring contemporary artists from Yorkshire and the Humber and the East of England.
Ten new pieces have been acquired by the Government Art Collection (GAC) this year as the fourth instalment of the five-year Art-X UK project, which is ensuring that the Collection reflects creative talent from across the entirety of the UK.
The new acquisitions include work by Grace Clifford, who uses everyday objects and industrial materials to challenge stereotypes about working-class communities. Her work explores how family history, local places and heritage shape people’s identities across generations. In 2023, she received the Working Class Creatives Database x Yorkshire Sculpture Park Residency, and in 2025 she received the Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award Scheme.
The GAC has also acquired works by Issam Kourbaj, who was born in Syria and moved to Cambridge in 1990. He studied art in Damascus, Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) and London. His work explores migration, memory and displacement, often using fragile, layered materials and found objects. These materials help tell stories about journeys, places people leave behind, and the connections they keep with home.
Arts Minister Ruth Mackenzie said:
I am delighted that remarkable artists from Yorkshire and the Humber and the East of England will be represented in the Government Art Collection and showcased nationally and internationally.
Through Art X-UK, we are recognising creative talent from every part of the country, championing regional artists and helping them to flourish on an international level.
In 2022, the GAC, which is part of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), launched a five-year acquisitions programme to collect works from exciting talent and showcase the best of UK creativity – promoting further interest in the country’s globally renowned creative sector.
The Art X-UK project initially ran as a successful pilot scheme in 2020–21. Since then, more than 170 pieces by 80 contemporary visual artists have been acquired for the Collection.
The works will be seen by audiences across the UK and around the world, with displays in government buildings across the country and in ten British embassies and Ambassadors’ residences overseas, including in Washington DC, Ankara, Abu Dhabi and Paris.
Grace Clifford, Yorkshire and the Humber artist said:
Seeing my bronze pub stool acquired by the Government Art Collection, a work that I truly don’t think would have been possible for me to actualise if I wasn’t practising in Sheffield, where I have been allowed time and space to develop my technical skills and sculptural practice, fills me with joy and pride.
It really takes a village to make these things happen, from the day I began making the moulds to cast the pub stool to being supported into the acquisition. My heart sings and I am so proud to know a bronze pub stool now sits amongst such a significant public collection.
Issam Kourbaj, East of England artist said:
Art X-UK has anchored my work within the living fabric of Cambridge and the East of England – a region where histories surface and recede like tides. Water Awash With Memory grew from the Mediterranean, a sea shaped by crossings, exchanges and exiles, yet the painting reaches beyond geography to speak to universal experiences of displacement and resilience. Its fractured colours and collaged book covers – gathered from Cambridge’s own binders and conservationists – form a kind of archive, a palimpsest of stories that resist erasure. Having the work held here feels like a quiet recognition of those layered journeys, and of the fragile traces that bind people and place.
Kedisha Coakley, Yorkshire and the Humber artist said:
To have Collection 15 and I AM HERE: Breadfruit II enter the Government Art Collection feels significant because my practice has always been about making visible histories and Black British experiences that I didn’t see reflected in the collections around me. These sculptures trace the entanglement of colonialism, botany, extraction and Black identity, so their place within a national collection feels like a meaningful shift in whose histories are held and remembered.
Sheffield and Yorkshire have been central to my practice, giving me the community, space and opportunities to develop this work. For me, this acquisition is not simply about recognition; it is about contributing to a fuller, more complex national story.
Sam Metz, Yorkshire and the Humber artist said:
I am surrounded by artists that inspire me in Yorkshire. My work particularly thrived when I was an artist at The Art House, Wakefield, supported by Damon Jackson-Waldock, I found my work became more focussed due to the accessible community the studios offered. I am glad that stimming as creative practice is being recognised in the region and I know this is due to Yorkshire organisations like Unlimited, Yorkshire Visual Art Network and Yorkshire Sculpture International who nourish disabled artists. I am currently based at Feral Arts in Hull and I continue to find a community of practitioners that elevate drawing.
Claire Cansick, East of England artist said:
I am so proud that my work is representing my beloved Norfolk in the Government Art Collection, [as] a working-class woman, from an outlying coastal town where I attended art college at 18, which gave me a sense of purpose and belonging.
The geographical position of Norfolk means it can sometimes feel forgotten nationally, although there is a vibrant, thriving and supportive artist network. My work attempts to draw a thread between my community and the world beyond, reflecting a collective discernment and concern for the natural world. Having this recognised in such a prominent collection means so much.
Amartey Golding, East of England artist said:
At what feels like a pivotal and uncertain moment for the country and its politics, having my work – and especially Bring Me to Heal – join the Government Art Collection feels deeply significant. The East of England has profoundly shaped British history, from Boudica and Kett’s Rebellion to its strong Quaker traditions and histories of resistance and social reform. These histories resonate deeply with my own practice, and I am proud to be connected to this place. I’m enormously grateful to the people at CVAN who put my name and work forward. It means the world.
Paula Orrell, National Director, temContemporary Visual Arts Network (CVAN England) said:
These artists represent the depth, ambition and diversity of contemporary practice across Yorkshire & Humber and the East of England. Our partnership with the Government Art Collection demonstrates the importance of working with regional visual arts networks to ensure the UK’s national collection reflects the richness of artistic practice across the whole of England.
As devolution reshapes how culture is recognised and invested in, programmes like Art X-UK highlight the critical role of regional expertise in identifying talent, strengthening local creative ecosystems and connecting place-based cultural identity with national and international audiences.
By acquiring and displaying these works around the world, the Government Art Collection is not only investing in exceptional artists but also recognising the vital contribution that regional visual arts ecologies make to England’s cultural life and international reputation.
Sharon Gill, CEO, Yorkshire and Humber Visual Art Network (YVAN), said:
It has been a real privilege to work with colleagues across the Yorkshire region to discuss and share our knowledge and joy in the creativity, and for the opportunity to support artists to be collected and celebrated for and by the nation. The hardest part was limiting the number of nominations, because the validation and subsequent confidence in your own practice such an honour brings cannot be underestimated.
Rosie Cooper, Director, Wysing Arts Centre and Chair, CVAN East, said:
I see the Government Art Collection as part of the UK’s cultural memory bank: each work is a portal into a different perspective, experience, place and time. It’s been a pleasure to work with brilliant artists, curators and directors across our very dispersed Eastern region, to help the Collection reveal more fully the richness, complexity and creativity of life in the places and communities it seeks to represent.
Notes to editors
As part of the first year of this project, the GAC acquired over 30 new pieces of artwork from Wales and the Midlands. In 2023–24, the GAC acquired more than 20 new artworks from Scotland and the North East. Last year, nine works were acquired from Northern Ireland and the North West.
In 2025–26, GAC worked in partnership with YVAN (Yorkshire and Humber Visual Art Network) and CVAN East (Contemporary Visual Arts Network – East of England). Each network convened a panel of artists and curators who proposed a shortlist of artists from the region for the GAC team to research. Artists whose work was acquired are:
Yorkshire and the Humber
- Kedisha Coakley
- Karanjit Panesar
- Grace Clifford
- Sam Metz
East of England
- Issam Kourbaj
- Sikelela Owen
- Amartey Golding
- Claire Cansick
ART X-UK acquisitions programme 2022–27:
- 2022/23 – Wales, East Midlands and West Midlands
- 2023/24 – Scotland, North East
- 2024/25 – Northern Ireland, North West
- 2025/26 – Yorkshire and the Humber and the East of England
- 2026/27 – South East, South West
